Closure latch



CLOSURE LATCH 1 Filed June 23, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 'I/ I N VENTOR. 2 flzY/Pimz ffcaezvace United States Patent 3,317,229 CLOSURE LATCH William F. Scarpace, Warren, Mich., assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 23, 1965, Ser. No. 466,222 6 Claims. (Cl. 292-216) This invention relates to closure latches and more particularly to vehicle body door locks.

One feature of this invention is that it provides an improved vehicle body door lock. Another feature of this invention is that it provides an improved vehicle body door lock including a movable inside operating member and means for blocking the movement of the inside operating member when the bolt is in unlatched position so that a remote handle coupled to the inside member can be used as a door pull-to handle. A further feature of this invention is that the blocking means includes a blocking lever adapted to be positioned in the path of movement of the inside operating member by movement of the latch bolt to an unlatched position. Yet another feature of this invention is that the blocking lever is normally biased to unblocking position and is moved to blocking position by the latch bolt. Yet a further feature of this invention is that the blocking lever includes a pair of pivotally interconnected members, one member being engageable by the latch bolt and the other member being engageable by the inside operating mmeber and being swingable relative to the one member upon release of the latch bolt by the inside operating member.

These and other features of the door lock of this invention will be readily apparent from the following specification and drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a partial side elevational view of a vehicle body embodying a door lock according to this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the lock;

FIGURE 3 is a partially broken away view of the lock in latched position;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken generally along the plane indicated by line 44 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 3 showing the lock in unlatched position; and

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken generally along the plane indicated by line 6-6 of FIGURE 5.

Referring now particularly to FIGURE 1 of the drawin-gs, a vehicle body 10 includes a front door 12 and a rear door 14, each of which is swingably mounted in a suitable manner adjacent its forward edge portion on the body 10 for movement between a closed position, as shown, andan open position, not shown. Door 12 is held in its closed position by a door lock, such as that shown, and described in Patent 3,190,682, Fox et al. Door 14 in held in closed position by a door lock 16 according to this invention. Lock 16 is similar to that covered by Patent 3,149,866, Gergoe et 211., issued Sept. 22, 1964.

Referring now particularly to FIGURES 2 through 6 of the drawings, the lock 16 includes a main frame or plate 18 adapted to abut the end or jamb wall 20 of door 14 and to be secured thereto in a suitable manner such as by a number of bolts 22 extending into tapped openings of the plate 18. A fork type bolt 24 is pivotally mounted on a shouldered stud 26 extending between the main plate 18 and an auxiliary plate 28. Plate 28 is staked at 30 adjacent its upper edge portion to a lateral flange 32 of plate 18 and includes a lower laterally extending flange 34 which terminates in an offset bent flange 36 staked to the plate 18. The plate 28 further includes an offset lateral foot or flange 38, which is also staked to the plate 18. A pair of lateral flanges 40 are located to either side of the flange 34 and fixedly support a stud or pin 42. A wedge-shaped nylon shoe 44 FIGURE 4, is slidably mounted on the pin 42 and is conventionally biased outwardly of the lock or to the right, as viewed in FIGURES 2, 3 and 5, by a coil compression spring seating against one of the flanges 40 and the shoe 44.

When the bolt 24 is in its latched position, the opening 48 of the bolt receives the shank 50 of a headed striker pin 52 which is secured in .a suitable manner to the body lock pillar 54, FIGURE 4. The head of the striker pin engages the shoe 44 so that the pin is effectively trapped between the bolt 24 and the shoe 44. The main frame 18 is cut away at 56 and the end wall 20 and inner panel of the door 16 are also cut away to permit the entry of the striker pin into the lock. Bolt 24 is normally biased toward an unlatched position,-as shown in FIGURE 5, by a coil torsion spring 58 which surrounds the stud 26 and has one end thereof engaging a notched lateral tab 60 of the bolt and the other end thereof engaging :a notched offset tab 62 which extends from a lateral flange 64 of the plate 18.

A detent or detent member 66 is pivotally mounted on a shouldered stud 68 secured to the plate 18 and includes a foot 70 which is engageable with either one of a pair of shoulders 72 and 74 of the bolt 24 to hold the bolt in either a latched position, as shown in FIG- URE 3, or a safety position against the action of the spring 58. A coil torsion spring 76 surrounds the stud 68 and has one leg thereof engaging under a notched lateral tab 78 of plate 28 and the other leg thereof engaging under a leg 80 of the detent to bias the detent clockwise and into engagement with the bolt 24. The bolt 24 is located in its unlatched position by engagement of the edge 82 of the bolt with a lateral tab 84, FIGURE 2, of the plate 18. The detent 66 is located against the action of the spring 76 by engagement of a lateral offset tab 86 thereof with a rubber bumper or stop 88 secured to a lateral flange 90 of the plate 18.

A shaft or pivot pin 92 extends the full length of the lock 16 between the upper flange 32 thereof and a lower flange 94 thereof and provides both a pivotal axis and a shifting axis for an outside operating lever or member 96. Member 96 includes upper and lower apertured lateral flanges 98 and 100 which pivotally and slidably receive the shaft 92 to mount member 96 thereon. A tension spring 102 interconnects the member 96 and the flange 90 of plate 18 to continually bias the member 96 in a clockwise direction, as viewed in FIGURE 2, with the member 96 being located against the action of the spring 102 in its inoperative or non-operating position as shown by engagement of a lateral tab 104 thereof with a tab of flange 90 of plate 18.

Member 96 is adapted to be engaged at any one of a plurality of places thereon by a push rod 108 which is operated by conventional push button means 110, FIGURE l, incorporated in an outside handle 112 secured to the outer panel of the door 14. Since the member 96 is elongated vertically and extends substantially the full depth of the lock 16, the handle 112 may be positioned at various vertical places on the outer panel of the door 14 without requiring repositioning of the lock 16.

The flange 98 of the member 96 includes an upwardly offset foot 114 which is adapted to selectively engage an upwardly extending offset foot 116 of the detent 66, and a downwardly offset foot 118 which is received between the legs of a forked inside locking lever 120 pivotally mounted at 122 on the plate 28. The locking lever 120 is movable between an unlocked position, as shown in FIGURE 2, and a locked position to be described, and is selectively and alternately held in either of these positions by an overcenter type coil torsion spring 124, FIGURE 4, hooked between the plate 28 and the locking lever. The locking lever is moved between these positions by a forked inside operating lever 126 which is pivotally secured at 128 to a lateral flange 130 of plate 28 and straddles a foot or leg 132 of the locking lever. The lever 126 is con nected by a shiftable rod 134 with a conventional garnish button 136, FIGURE 1.

When the locking lever 120 is in its unlocked position as shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, the foot 114 of lever 96 is located in opposition to the foot 116 of the detent 66, and when the locking lever 120 is in its locked position, not shown, the foot 114 of lever 96 is located above the foot 116 of the detent.

When the locking lever is in its unlocked position, depression of the push button means 110 will shift rod 108 inwardly of door 14 and swing the lever 96 counterclockwise, as viewed in FIGURE 2, to move the foot 114 into engagement with the foot 116 of the detent 66 and swing the detent counterclockwise, as viewed in FIGURE 3 to move the foot 70 thereof out of engagement with the shoulder 72 of the bolt 24 and thereby permit the spring 58 to move the bolt to its unlatched position. When the locking lever is in its locked position, swinging movement of the member 96 will result in the foot 114 swinging above and past the foot 116 without engagement therewith so that the bolt remains in latched position.

From the foregoing description, it will be noted that the outside operating lever or member 96 both swings and shifts about a single vertical axis defined by the pin 92 but is effective to release the detent 66 upon swinging movement thereof only when disposed in its unlocked posit-ion of FIGURE 3.

The inside operating means includes a conventionl remote handle 138 which operates a shiftable rod 140 interconnecting the handle and an inside operating lever 142. Lever 142 is pivoted at 144 on the flange 94 of plate 18 and includes a lateral or upwardly extending tab or foot 146 movable within a slot 148 of flange 94. One edge of the foot 146 is engageable with an edge of the flange 100 of member 96 so as to swing this member about the pin 92 and release the detent 66 when the member 96 is in its unlocked position of FIGURE 3 and the bolt is in its latched position. It can be seen that the lever 142 is coupled at all times to the member 96 so that both of these will move upon operation of the remote handle 138 regardless whether the bolt is in latched or unlatched position and the door is open or closed.

In order that the remote handle 138 can be used as a door pull-to handle for pulling the open door to closed position, a blocking means 150 according to this invention is provided. This blocking means blocks the lever 142 when the bolt 24 is in unlatched position so that the handle 138 will remain stationary when grasped by a passenger. The blocking means includes a lever 152 which is swingably mounted on the pivot 26 of the bolt 24. The lever includes an offset tab or foot 154 which extends through an opening 156 in plate 28 in the path of swinging movement of the tab 60 of the bolt. A coil torsion spring 158 surrounds the pivot 26 outwardly of the plate 28 and has one end thereof hooked within an opening 169 of the plate 28 and the other end thereof engaging a notched lateral tab 162 of lever 152 to bias the lever clockwise as viewed in FIGURES 2, 3 and 5. A tab 164 secured to the pivot 26 overlies the spring 158 to prevent the spring from moving off the pivot 26.

A second lever 166 is pivoted at 168 to the lower offset foot portion of lever 152. The lever 166 includes an offset blocking foot or tab 170 and a notched lateral tab 172. A coil torsion spring 174, FIGURE 4, surrounds the pivot 168 and has one end thereof hooked to the tab 154 of lever 152 and the other end thereof hooked to the tab 172 of lever 166 to continuously bias the lever 166 counterclockwise of the lever 152 and hold an edge port-ion of the lever 166 in engagement with the lower offset foot portion of lever 152.

When the bolt is in latched position as shown in FIG- URE 3, the spring 174 locates the lever 166 in engagement with the lever 152 and the spring 158 locates the tab 154 of the lever 152 in engagement with one edge of the opening 156, as shown in FIGURE 3, to thereby locate the blocking foot or tab 170 of lever 166 out of the path of movement of the foot 146 of the lever 142. It will be noted that the tab 60 of the bolt is in spaced relationship to the tab 154 of the lever 152. Upon release of the latch by the outside operating lever 96, as previously described, the bolt 24 moves from its position of FIGURE 3 to its position of FIGURE 5 and in so doing the tab 60 picks up the tab 154 to swing the lever 152 counterclockwise about the pivot 26 and against the action of the spring 158 to locate the foot 170 of the lever 166 in the path of movement of the foot 146 of lever 142, as shown in FIG- URE 5. Thus, if the handle 138 should be grasped by the passenger when the door is open, the tab 146 of the lever 142 will engage the foot 170 and be blocked so that the handle 138 can be used as a door pull-to.

If the lock is in a latched position as shown in FIGURE 2 and the handle 138 is operated to release the bolt, the lever 142 will swing about the pivot 144 and the foot 146 will engage the tab of the lever 96 to release the lock as previously described. Upon release of the detent from the bolt 24, the bolt will move to its unlatched position as previously described. However, the foot 146 of the lever 142 will lie in the path of movement of the lever 166 and upon engagement of the edge of the foot 170 with the foot 146, the lever 166 will be swung clockwise about the pivot 166 to permit the lever 152 to move with the bolt without jamming. As soon as the passenger releases the handle 138, the lever 142 moves to its position as shown in FIGURES 2, 3 and 5, whereupon the spring 174 moves the lever 166 to its position as shown in FIGURES 3 and 5.

The lock 16 further includes the features of keyless locking and automatic undogging. Automatic undogging is accomplished by depressing the garnish button 136 when the door is in an open position so as to move the member 96 from its unlocked position of FIGURE 3 to its locked position and thereafter closing the door 14. i As the door 14 closes, the foot 70 of the detent 66 will successively ratchet past the shoulders 74 and 72 of the bolt 24 so that the detent will intermittently swing counterclockwise. When the detent 66 first swings counterclockwise, a lateral foot 176 thereof will engage a late-rally extending foot 178 of tab 104 to shift the member 96 downwardly of the plate 18 and move the member from its locked position to its unlocked position of FIGURE 3 and in turn also move the locking lever 120 from its locked position to its unlocked position.

Keyless locking is accomplished in the same manner except that the push button means is depressed and held during closing movement of the door so that the foot 178 of the member 96 is moved outwardly from underneath the foot 176 of the detent 66 so that the latter cannot engage the former as the detent ratchets past the bolt 24 when the door is closed.

Thus, this invention provides an improved vehicle body door lock.

What is claimed is:

1. A closure latch comprising, in combination, latch means movable between latched and unlatched positions, detent means for holding said latch means in latched positions, outside operating means for releasing said detent means, movable inside operating means coupled to a remote handle for releasing said detent means, means biasing said blocking means to unblocking position wherein said blocking means are located out of the path of movement of the inside operating means, blocking means movable between blocking and unblocking positions, said blocking means being located in the path of movement of said inside operating means in the blocking position thereof, and cooperating means on said blocking means and said latch means engageable with each other for moving said blocking means to blocking position upon movement of said latch means to unlatched position to prevent movement of said inside operating means and permit use of said remote handle as a door pull-to.

2. A closure latch as recited in claim 1 wherein said blocking means includes a plurality of pivotally interconnected levers, one of said levers being engageable by said latch means for moving said levers as a unit to blocking position.

3. A closure latch as recited in claim 2 wherein one of said levers is engageable with said inside operating means for movement relative to the other of said levers upon movement of said inside operating means into the path of movement of said one lever to release said detent means.

4. A closure latch comprising, in combination, latch means movable between latched and unlatched positions, detent means for holding said latch means in latched position, outside operating means for releasing said detent means, inside operating means coupled to a remote handle for releasing said detent means, a pair of pivotally interconnected blocking levers, means mounting said levers on said latch for movement as a unit between a blocking position wherein one of said levers is in the path of movement of said inside operating means and an unblocking position wherein said one lever is out of the path of movement of said inside operating means, and means for moving said levers as a unit upon release of said detent means to locate said one lever in blocking position to prevent movement of said inside operating means and permit use of said handle as a door pull-to.

5. A closure latch as recited in claim 4 wherein said one lever is resiliently biased into engagement with said other lever and is movable relative to said other lever upon engagement with said inside operating means when said inside operating means releases said detent means.

6. A closure latch as recited in claim 1 including means locating said blocking means in the path of movement of said latch means When said latch means are in latched position and said blocking means are in unblocking position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,200,714 5/ 1940 Falk 292359 3,049,372 8/1962 Pickles 292216 3,149,866 9/1964 Gergoe et al 292-216 EDWARD C. ALLEN, Primary Examiner. RICHARD E. MOORE, Assistant Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No 3, 317, 229 May 2, 1967 William F. Scarpace It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below Column 1, line 30, for "mmeber" read member column 4, lines 68 and 69, for "positions" read position lines 72 to 75, strike out "means biasing said blocking means to unblocking position wherein said blocking means are located out of the path of movement of the inside operating means," and insert the same after "positions," in column 5, line 1.

Signed and sealed this 21st day of November 1967.

(SEAL) Attest:

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr. EDWARD J. BRENNER Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A CLOSURE LATCH COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, LATCH MEANS MOVABLE BETWEEN LATCHED AND UNLATCHED POSITIONS, DETENT MEANS FOR HOLDING SAID LATCH MEANS IN LATCHED POSITIONS, OUTSIDE OPERATING MEANS FOR RELEASING SAID DETENT MEANS, MOVABLE INSIDE OPERATING MEANS COUPLED TO A REMOTE HANDLE FOR RELEASING SAID DETENT MEANS, MEANS BIASING SAID BLOCKING MEANS TO UNBLOCKING POSITION WHEREIN SAID BLOCKING MEANS ARE LOCATED OUT OF THE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF THE INSIDE OPERATING MEANS, BLOCKING MEANS MOVABLE BETWEEN BLOCKING AND UNBLOCKING POSITIONS, SAID BLOCKING MEANS BEING LOCATED IN THE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF SAID INSIDE OPERATING MEANS IN THE BLOCKING POSITION THEREO, AND COOPERATING MEANS ON SAID BLOCKING MEANS AND SAID LATCH MEANS ENGAGEABLE WITH EACH OTHER FOR MOVING SAID BLOCKING MEANS TO BLOCKING POSITION UPON MOVEMENT OF SAID LATCH MEANS TO UNLATCHED POSITION TO PREVENT MOVEMENT OF SAID INSIDE OPERATING MEANS AND PERMIT USE OF SAID REMOTE HANDLE AS A DOOR PULL-TO. 